President Obama will hold a press conference today to push his deficit-cutting plan as lawmakers in Washington battle over ways to prevent the massive tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled for January 1. Given the partisan bickering, a bare majority of voters thinks a deal to avoid going over the so-called “fiscal cliff” is likely to emerge before then.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe it is likely that Congress and the president will agree on a plan to stop the tax increases and spending cuts before the first of the year. Forty-two percent (42%) think a deal is unlikely to emerge. These findings include only 15% who feel a deal is Very Likely and just as many (14%) who say it’s Not At All Likely. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on November 12-13, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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